Kawakami: San Francisco 49ers should replace kicker David Akers for the playoffs

SAN FRANCISCO -- So much went right for the 49ers on Sunday, but one key thing keeps going wrong and wide and no good.

Yes, the 49ers clinched the division with their 27-13 victory over Arizona, grabbed the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs and celebrated a much-needed bye week.

Hoots and hollers, roars and dancing, postseason here they come.

And yet ... Do the 49ers really want David Akers lining up with a playoff game in the balance?

"Well, it's his job to make the field goals, you know," coach Jim Harbaugh said after Akers missed back-to-back tries wide left from 44 and 40 yards on Sunday.

"(This is) not to his standard." That was not a vote of confidence, by the way.

There is no reason for Harbaugh to support Akers now. Akers is a good guy who kicked wonderfully last season, but there is no way the 49ers can count on him in these playoffs.

Akers came back to make his final two tries on Sunday -- and calm down some of the raucous Candlestick boos.

But his 2-for-4 day gave Akers four misses in the 49ers' final four regular-season games, and only added to a season of growing shakiness. He is 29 for 42 for the season.

"In the practices, it has been good mechanically," Harbaugh said. "Can't exactly say what's going on."

I've watched Akers in pregame warm-ups the last three weeks, and he looks unsettled, like he's tinkering on every kick, adjusting, overcompensating and unsure.

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Basically, Akers has spent most of the 2012 season looking the exact opposite of his 2011 All-Pro form.

Harbaugh has been amazingly patient with Akers -- believing that the issue started when Akers suffered a minor pelvic injury and that the kicker was coming around.

But Akers' injury was long ago, and he's still missing, each week in a new, bad way -- from the block that was run back for a touchdown in Seattle to the late misses against St. Louis to Sunday's high, wide pop-ups.

He has lost his confidence, and he's lost the Candlestick crowd, which booed him fiercely after his second miss and again before he made a 43-yarder in the third quarter.

After his misses, Akers walked back to the sideline slowly each time, slumped to the bench and stared down at the ground for a long time.

Most of his teammates stayed far away, but tight end Vernon Davis wandered over to give Akers a supportive tap on the helmet.

"He was down a little bit," Davis said of Akers. "But that's OK. It's football. You're going to miss some kicks.

"That doesn't mean you can't be great. He might be one of the greatest kickers to ever play this game -- if he keeps on going. He can't put his head down. It's all right."

It's all right for the 49ers -- because they're in the playoffs and thanks to Minnesota's victory over Green Bay, the 49ers got the No. 2 seed.

But it's not all right for their kicker, who might not be their kicker for much longer.

So now ... "We'll evaluate the position," Harbaugh said.

It is not unprecedented for playoff teams to pick up new kickers as the postseason begins. From Harbaugh's tone, I'd guess the search got under way about 15 minutes after the game.

In the playoffs, the 49ers can't be hoping and waiting for their kicker to stop missing -- if they keep Akers in the playoffs, his next miss could eliminate them.

So maybe it will be Billy Cundiff or Ryan Longwell, or John Kasay, or it will be another veteran free agent. But it won't be, can't be, Akers anymore.

And if the new kicker is immediately a debacle and costs the 49ers a playoff game, that's partly on Harbaugh and general manager Trent Baalke.

Why? Because a faster trigger on Akers would have given them more time to find and indoctrinate a new kicker. And then find another.

But the 49ers stuck with Akers probably two or three weeks longer than they should have, and now they have to make a move after the regular season.

And what was Akers' response? He left the locker room almost immediately after the game and was not available to the media.

Even as his teammates watched the end of the Vikings game together and celebrated wildly, Akers was gone.

Everything else went right for the 49ers on Sunday, and now they have to move on from the wrong kicker.